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Viewing the family as the most integral component of society, assumptions about gender roles within marriage assume a prominent place in this perspective.įunctionalists argue that gender roles were established well before the pre-industrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the home, such as hunting, and women typically took care of the domestic responsibilities in or around the home. Structural functionalism has provided one of the most important perspectives of sociological research in the twentieth century and has been a major influence on research in the social sciences, including gender studies. Is the gender wage gap a real thing? Watch this vlog from John Green to learn about some of the latest research on the topic. Let’s look at each of these perspectives again as they apply more broadly to gender. This type of meaning-making, which is heavily gendered through generational cycles of socialization, contributes to the wage gap at the microsociological level. A woman who displays certain behaviors that are generally conceived of as being appropriate for leadership (i.e., strong, opinionated, concise) might be perceived as “bossy” or “difficult to work with,” whereas a man depicting the same behaviors would be perceived as someone who is ready for a leadership position. Interactionists would likely examine how meaning is produced and negotiated in social interactions and how that meaning is then translated into wage inequality.
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The United States is an advanced capitalist society, so by paying some workers less than others (and all workers less than the actual value of their labor), those at the top increase their wealth, while the workers are led to believe they too can join the bourgeoisie if they work hard enough. Females, as a minority group, are paid less so that the dominant group (men) can maintain a greater share of status and power. As we have seen over the past 60 years, values do not always keep up with changing norms and vice versa.Ĭonflict theorists influenced by the theories of Karl Marx might analyze how the bourgeoisie use the wage gap to perpetuate an unequal system, and how the wage gap is successful in keeping the working classes both divided and subject to a politically neutralizing false consciousness. When women began to collectively demand “equal pay for equal work” in the 1960s, formal norms (laws) had to be passed for this to occur. When large numbers of women began to enter the workforce beginning in World War II, they were paid less, but the rationale for this wage was that it was a necessary cost-saving measure during wartime. For functionalists, when roles are clearly established, social solidarity increases. Structural functionalists might look at how values and norms shape societal notions of success in the workforce, and how these established values and norms reinforce the division of labor as well as gender inequality. To establish a more comprehensive analytical framework, we can apply each of the three main sociological perspectives to better understand the socio-economic phenomenon of the gender wage gap. We then want to scrutinize the structures and processes that shape these experiences. Not only do we need to examine each woman’s experience in the workforce, we should also understand intersectionality, or how each person’s experience is affected by race/ethnicity, social class, age, etc. This gap is even more pronounced for Black and Hispanic women. In 2017, full-time working women made 80.5 cents to every dollar earned by men, meaning there is a gender wage gap of 19.5 percent. To take a specific example, let’s consider how each theoretical perspective might explain the gender wage gap.
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Sociological theories help to explain complex human behaviors, social phenomena, and social structures.